Friday, February 16, 1996
The Makings of
a Foolish Family
by
MF
DowMan
When I became a full-time Fool last year, the Sheard household went through a number of changes. Perhaps the happiest is that my 3-year-old son Brenden no longer automatically says "goodbye" to me when he walks in the door from pre-school as I'm on my way out to teach another dreaded night course. Perhaps the strangest is that I have to explain quickly to his friends and teachers that it's a GOOD thing when he says his daddy's a Fool.
But despite all the terrific changes in my life---a very casual work wardrobe (sweats and tee-shirts), reasonably flexible hours (check out some of the time-stamps on my message board posts), the freedom to work on exciting projects at home and with other dedicated Fools---my becoming a Fool has had some rather unexpected effects on my wife and son. Against Cyndi's will and without Brenden's awareness, they're becoming Fools too!
Cyndi is a college professor, teaching the history and theory of rhetoric at the University of Kentucky. Her only interest in the stock market is that it both makes me happy and had provided me with a career. (Well, she's not complaining about making money through our portfolio, but she swears that's not her first priority. . . wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) So, in a way, she's tried to shut herself off from Foolishness because, as she puts it, I'm handling it so she doesn't have to.
The fact that Cyndi's a stealth Fool, however, became clear the other day when she returned from our favorite local bookstore and told me about a funny experience she had with someone who was looking at the Fools' new book. Joseph-Beth Booksellers features new releases prominently in the front of the store, and my wife and I usually browse there as soon as we enter. When Cyndi saw a gentleman looking at the Fools' book and asking the clerk if he knew anything about it, she couldn't resist mentioning that her husband works for these guys and that their investment approach was terrific. So they chatted for a few minutes about investing and the Motley Fool and he was convinced it was the book for him. (Of course, he's waiting to buy it during Joseph-Beth's "Fat Tuesday" sale, but a sale's a sale.) Nevertheless, I'd have to say that two Fools were born that day. My wife, who finally had to admit that Foolishness is part of her, and the new reader who, by talking to a "Fool" in person, got confirmation of what he already suspected by glancing at the book.
I thought about her encounter for a couple of days until something else happened that convinced me that I've turned a complete family into Fools. In the evenings after Cyndi and Brenden get home, we usually spend a little time gabbing about whatever's happened that day, and on most days CNBC's Market Wrap news is still on in the background. Cyndi and I were talking about some news or other from the university when Brenden suddenly looked up from the puzzle he was working and said, "Daddy, is that a silly man?" And before I even turned around to see whom he was pointing at, I knew. . . and started laughing. That voice! Could it be any other than Dan Dorfman? We laughed so hard at his Foolish observation that every time he hears "the voice" now, Brenden announces, "Daddy, it's the silly man!" I thought perhaps he was repeating something I had said in the past, but I realized that---other epithets aside---I've probably never called Dorfman silly. That was strictly my son's---just "one man's opinion." Another Fool born and it's official. We're all Fools in the Sheard house.
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